Nephrite Nightshade
by Yuhi Sakura
Summary: The world of war is about to collide with the world of magic. Cards are going to give way to blood. There's a sinister alliance threatening both Domino and the Shinobi Nations. And raging against the dying of the light might not be enough to save their lives or their souls. Sequel to Crystal Lotus. Coauthored with ScarletRoseProdigy.
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter One: Shadow of Night**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Yu-gi-Oh. I just love them. And Lynn Haruno is an original creation of ScarletRoseProdigy.**_

Sakura crumpled the note in her hand as she heard the door open. She had read it so many times the words were burned into her memory like the scars on her belly. And now she didn't know what she was supposed to do...And after it had all finally, _finally_ settled. It was ironic that the one conclusion Sakura had prayed for with all her being was the very one that would subsequently complicate her life beyond all belief.

In fact, when people (and they frequently did) commented on what a "fantasy romance" she had, it was all she could do not to laugh; then again, they hadn't been there for all of the hardship that had accompanied his return to the world of the living. There had been long conversations about what the revelations borne in Egypt meant for them: Sakura wanted to know that Yami loved her, not Nathifa. But at first, even she couldn't tell where Nathifa ended and she began. And between that and several sleepless nights awaiting his arrival, or his failure to return, along with the emotional rollercoaster his homecoming had thrown her on, it was easy to wonder who she was at all for a while.

And she knew it had been hard for him to separate Nathifa and herself. There wasn't a lifetime that separated who he was as a Pharaoh and who he was as a person. Though nearly three thousand years has passed, he had been dormant for almost all of it. He had hardly lived at all between his time as an Egyptian ruler and his current state; he felt, she knew, that his growth as a person meant less because his time as a person hadn't been as long as hers. And she didn't know how to tell him how amazing his growth was. He accomplished in a few scant years what most people needed a lifetime to even touch on.

In all the chaos, both in their reality and their inner universes, they had vented their stress and fears on each other. Simple disagreements turned into full-blown fights that ended in stony silence. And, sometimes, that refusal to speak would stretch into days of refusal to so much as acknowledge the other one's existence. And, to a large degree, their frustration was seated in the fact that they had just witnessed an event three thousand years old from the outside. It was painful knowing the end of a story, _their_ story, and being helpless to change its tragic outcome.

If it hadn't been for their friends, she knew it was unlikely that they would have made it all. Yugi had been there unconditionally for both of them, whether Sakura needed a shoulder to cry on or Yami needed someone to duel to relieve his tension. But, of course, they owed their shared world, their passionate love, just as much to Yugi and Solomon as they did Lynn and Kaiba-Sakura had lost count of the number of nights she had spent on Lynn's couch, and she knew that for every time she had been curled there, Yami had been fighting his rival, his friend, in an attempt to understand who they were as a couple.

And even allowing for the depth of their love and the resilience of their friends, she knew they _shouldn't_ have made it. It was all too much…In looking back, she couldn't even really pinpoint the moment that had turned it around for them. But someone or something had conspired to bring them together, and apparently who or whatever it was had been equally resistant to their breaking. The kunoichi closed her eyes, a faint smile playing on her lips as she thought back to what was both the bleakest and best night of her life…

 _Her head was buried in her arms, hot tears racing down her pale face and collecting against the pillow. She knew she had been there for hours, and her head ached, her stomach hurt from her violent sobbing, and she was running out of tears to shed._

" _Sakura…"_

 _His voice startled her and she cursed herself for not realizing he was there sooner. She sat up, hastily wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. Almost vindictively, she was determined not to show him how badly he could rile her._

 _His eyes suddenly softened at her gesture. His hands fell to his pockets and he heaved a sigh as he sat down next to her. "You…never minded showing me before…"_

 _Guilt coagulated like blood in the pit of her stomach when she realized that she had hurt him, too. She suddenly threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around him. "I'm so sorry, Yami."_

 _His arms came up, caging her with surprising strength. "Sakura…I love you. I understand now…You're not Nathifa; you never will be. But…I'm not the person I was, either. Nathifa, Atemu…they died thousands of years ago. It's time to let them rest."_

 _Her breath hitched her throat as new tears welled in her eyes. Her shoulders trembled beneath his hands as she wept. "I want that more than anything, Yami."_

 _He smiled, cupping her tear damp face with his palm, "Sakura, the life I live today is the life I want to grasp forever. Don't ever doubt that."_

 _The kunoichi buried her head against his chest as he stretched out beside her._

Of course, she hadn't been totally prepared for the next morning, either. For the second time in a row, Teá, Joey, and Tristan had walked in to find them sleeping together in the most innocent sense possible…and had abruptly broken out into a fit of cheering, clapping, and rejoicing. Needless to say, it took a few weeks for Sakura to understand why; when she finally managed to get around to a private lunch with Teá, the brunette had confided that for a long time they didn't think that Yami and Sakura would make it as a couple. That was the reason for their unexpected party in the living room.

Sakura had just smiled back wryly; it was hardly something that simply came to them. They had to work at it just like anyone else. That meant twice weekly dinners between just the two of them, spontaneous days out together, flowers from him, candy from her…the list went on and on and on. But it wasn't work, in the strictest sense. Seeing him smile was its own reward.

The pink-haired medic snapped back to reality, the sharp cry of a carrier kite shattering her reminiscing. She stood up, throwing open the kitchen window and extending her arm. A sleek brown hawk dropped from the sky in the same instant.

Sakura pulled the tired bird in, turning on the faucet and letting it slack its thirst while she relieved it of the scroll tied to its leg. But worry had creased her face from the moment its shriek had reached her ears: their contracts, written up by Tsunade herself, had severe stipulations on the terms of a potential recall. And most of them were crisis _theories_ ; situations that were hypothetical worst-case scenarios. And the contents of the message only confirmed her fears. In the envelope was a summons to return immediately to Konoha: People were dropping into comas left and right with no medical cause that either Shizune or Tsunade herself could find. Included in the envelope was an odd card that they had found near one of the unfortunate victims; it showed a glowing green pentagram with odd runes running around the edge. And it looked like a duel card…

The kunoichi bit down on her lip as she began to mentally checklist what needed to happen next. No doubt Lynn was receiving the same note, which at the very least took care of discreet travel. Anyone could charter a jet, and with the tournament money she had accrued by herself, it was hardly a matter of funds. But only someone in a position of power, like Lynn, could see to it that it was done with the utmost secrecy.

She flipped open her phone, speed dialing her sister as she raced up the stairs. Lynn's breathless reply only verified Sakura's thoughts on the matter.

"You got one, too, I take it."

"Yeah; I'm working the fine details now."

"When do we leave?"

"Tonight. Eight. Be at the airstrip."

"Got it." Sakura responded, flipping her phone down.

She raced into her room, grabbing a bag on her way through the door. She stuffed it with spare clothes, weaponry, and medical supplies. She had only just zipped it up when she heard Yugi call out that he was home from school.

 _Damn it..._ She had been hoping to make a quiet get away.

She sighed as she stood up, slinging the pack across her shoulders. She stepped out of the room and onto the staircase just as her friend was coming up it.

"Hey, Sakura!" He smiled, eyeing her bag before asking, "What's going on?"

"Sorry, Yugi, I don't really have time to explain." She smiled sadly as she suddenly disappeared.

His jaw dropped in alarm and in that same moment she materialized behind him. He dropped back into her arms a fraction of a second later, unconscious from the light blow to the back of his neck. She carried him downstairs, arranging him on the couch. She was only beginning to rise when Solomon walked into the living room. His sharp eyes darted from her to Yugi and back again as he opened his mouth to ask what had happened. Of course, he didn't even have time to register her movement as she knocked him unconscious in much the same way. He fell back, just as she had planned, into his rocking chair.

"Sorry, Grandpa," She sighed, "I'll make it up to you when I get back."

 _If I get back…_

The front door opened suddenly down the hall, a familiar creak filling the air. Soft foot fall echoed as the door closed…

 _Damn it…today just isn't going my way…_

Sakura dropped her pack where she stood, turning down the hall to "greet" her lover. His lips pulled up when he saw her come down the hall, though he was far from prepared for the sheer force of her kiss. Her weight carried him back against the door, her hands twining in his jacket as she pulled him toward the kitchen.

Their lock was finally broken when she gently pushed him into a chair. Smirking, he finally said, "You seem to be in a good mood."

"What can I say?" She replied with a wink as she poured him a cup of tea from the kettle that rested habitually on the stovetop.

"Well, you could tell me how your day went." He suggested.

"Oh, the usual." She responded, feeling her heart break with her lie.

"Is that all now?" He replied, bringing the cup to his lips. "Good tea."

 _Better than you think…_

Yami pushed the cup away, smiling at her from across the table.

"Yami…you know that I love you, right?" She asked suddenly, her voice faint.

"Of course." He responded, unsure of what had prompted her odd behavior,

But as he opened his mouth to ask her, he realized his eyesight was…blurring. He shook his head, rubbing his eyes. When he opened them again, Sakura was kneeling in front of him.

"I'm sorry I had to do this…" She said, kneeling beside him to meet his fading consciousness.

He didn't have time to even consider her words as sleep took him.

* * *

Lynn snapped her cell phone closed as the door behind her creaked. She smiled at Kaiba as he walked through the door and gathered her arms around his neck. The elder Haruno wanted— _badly-_ to memorize the way his hair framed the blue of his eyes, the smell of his deodorant and the texture of his coat beneath her hands. And before she could waver, she slammed her palm against the nape of his neck and caught him as he crumpled.

"One day you'll forgive me..." She whispered, smoothing his hair against his forehead as she laid him out on the couch in their office.

She turned, walking away, as Kaiba's eyes fluttered and shut once more. Lynn grabbed her bag as she descended the stairs and hurried out to a waiting car. The drive, only a few minutes, left far too much time for her mind to wander. When he woke up, he would be furious, hurt...confused. Lynn shook herself from her reveries before they had time to write themselves to completion. She stepped out of the car onto the tarmac and found her sister standing there.

"How can we trust a pilot?" Sakura asked.

"You won't have to," Lynn replied, pulling her hair back into a bun. "I'm flying."

The jet, a luxury liner, led them to the cockpit with a flourish of red carpet and beige colored leather. Lynn strapped herself down, waited for Sakura to affix her harness, and began the flight control system rev up. The door slid shut behind them and locked with the hiss of pressurized air. The engine gunned to life, and Lynn slid the joystick forward and tilted them up and into the air.

"What's the news?" Lynn asked.

Sakura spread a thick manilla envelope open in her lap. There were lab reports, witness accounts, letters from jonin and chunin, and statements from doctors and nurses.

"It's bad, but I can't make heads or tails of these reports." Sakura shrugged.

"Then we should hurry." Lynn said.

* * *

Yami stumbled to his feet and crashed into the table. He caught himself, forced his vision to clear, and staggered into the living room. He found Solomon there, the old man resting peacefully and Yugi cradling his head in his hands.

"Aibou...?"

Yugi looked up at him and flashed him a weak thumbs up.

"Are you okay?" Yugi asked.

"Dazed...Dizzy." Yami told him.

"What happened?" Yugi asked, his recollection dulled.

"I intend to find out, Aibou." Yami said, roughly shoving clothing into a bag from the closet.

Yami darted out the door, Yugi shouting behind him, and raced to Kaiba Corp. He pushed his way past Kaiba's already harried security and into the CEO's office. The man was snapping the lid of a his suitcase into place when Yami found him.

"I don't have time today to deal with you." Kaiba snapped at him.

"Lynn is gone, as well, I take it." Yami replied.

Kaiba's eyes narrowed and he spat, "And your woman?"

"My _partner_ is missing, as well."

"If you're going to tag along, don't get in my way." Kaiba snipped, turning himself around the desk and out a door in the side of his office wall. Yami followed closely behind him, demanding, "And how do you intend to find them?"

"Technology." Kaiba hissed, opening a small electronic pad in his hand. The tiny red dot of a GPS tracking signal flashed on a blue field.

* * *

The jet roared into the cover of a forest and Lynn cut the engines; they would walk the last bit. Time to think...and time to remember how desperately beautiful the greenery of Konoha was; how _alive_ every part of it was.

Sakura breathed in deeply, the scent of fertile soil and blossoming trees filling her head with memories and her heart with ache. Yami had taken her to a cherry blossom viewing party and never once looked up at the ocean of fluttering pink flowers. He had locked his eyes on her and when she asked him why, he had told her she was so much beautiful than even the Nile in full flood when the silvery reeds were above their heads.

They walked in silence and Lynn, cautious, broke away and told Sakura she would go alone. Sakura let her...Lynn had been away for a very long time and it was hardly a secret that she had been a paramore to Orochimaru. Not everyone would understand her change of heart...the terrors she had endured. She, however, enjoyed the luxury of warm greetings and entreaties about her health and where she had been. Shizune greeted her at the gates, smiling with tears in the corners of her eyes.

Sakura hugged the woman, telling her, "You look good, Shizune."

"As do you, Sakura-chan. I hope you'll forgive my rudness, but time is of the essence." Shizune told her, beckoning her forward.

The woman led her through the hospital, past multiple sealing runes and into a ward Sakura had only ever heard of. And on the bed in front of her, lines running through his body and machines beeping, was the wan, weak and pale body of Kakashi. Sakura had read the report, but it was nothing compared to the horror of seeing it. Kakashi, who had always been strong, laid weak and low.

The kunoichi dropped her bag and sat down beside him. She pulled her hair into a spiky bun behind her, and let the green chakra flow up into her palms. The world she could see melted into the world she would only feel. His organs were laid out beneath her hands and she could sense an odd disruption that emanated from his heart and his brain outward. His core body temperature was low, a difference she could detect only in his cells, and he was so very weak beneath her hands. It scared her how much power she held over him in those moments as she explored him before turning her head away and saying, "I've never seen this before."

"Neither have we." Shizune said.

"Tell me more about how he was found." Sakura said.

"A civilian found him about three days ago in the early morning. He appeared uninjured, but he was, and has remained, unresponsive."

"Anything else?"

Shizune fumbled with the kunai pouch on her hip and pressed something at Sakura; the kunoichi accepted it and opened her palm. It was a Duel Monsters card of a green pentagram-like diagram. And it sent chills up her spine.

"This was found in his vest." Shizune told her.

Sakura felt the world spin.

"I need to speak to Lady Tsunade-shishou immediately!" Sakura cried.

Shizune nodded and hurried her across the village to Hokage Tower. She was left for only a moment. Long enough to press her hands to the window and remember how, so long ago, she waited for a different kind of news to travel the line up to her. The door swung open behind her and she was engulfed in Tsunade's warm aura.

"Shinobi can't handle this..." Sakura breathed.

"Can you?" Tsunade asked.

Sakura nodded, flipped a kunai into her hand, and told her, "Leave it to me."

She had little time to prepare; the sun was beginning to set. And she could feel Lynn across the village, her agitation in tiny spikes of chakra like the swell of water on an angry sea. The kunoichi slid the window in front of her open and told her mentor, "It's important that everyone stays inside tonight." And then she flung herself from the window into the trees and darted into the impossibly deep forest spread before her.

Hours later, as she landed in a small clearing to catch her breath, she would marvel at how much her body was still capable of...the way her hands and her legs carried her through the trees. And have her thoughts broken by a single string of words: "Behind you, my dear."

Sakura spun herself around, startled by the sudden flicker of energy across her consciousness. The man standing in front of her towered over her with piercing green eyes and unruly white hair that hung to his waist.

"Who the hell are you?" She demanded.

The smile, in an eerie way, reminded her of Orochimaru. "My name is Dartz. You've something in your possession that I require."

"And what, precisely, would that be?" Sakura replied.

"Your soul." He told her.

"Try it and watch me kick your ass." The kunoichi spat.

The field around her began to glow a deep green, lines of color racing to intersect one another until she was standing in the heart of a pentagram with runes rotating lazily around its center.

"Let the games begin." He sighed.

"Go to hell!" Sakura screamed, launching herself at him.

Her fist was mere feet from him when she was blasted backwards by the sudden materialization of a odd creature. Its waist was smaller than her arm, and its arms were bigger at the wrist than her thigh. It was a horrible amalgamation of flesh and technology, its eyes gleaming red. It lashed out her and was intercepted by the sudden whip of a chain. As Sakura danced backwards, her eyes found Lynn.

The woman was wearing a sleek red dress, wielding a chain, and her hair disguised beneath a wig. Her face was covered with the feline mask of the ANBU.

"Stay the hell away from my sister, you fucking freak." Lynn hissed, whipping the chain in a tight circle around her wrist.

"Another upstart bitch, I see." Dartz muttered, pulling a card from his belling white sleeves.

"Don't make me repeat myself." Lynn spat.

He flicked the card out and it erupted into a mass of light; as it cleared, it left behind the hulking form of a black dragon. Sakura recognized it...Joey's favored card. But this one had the same odd seal imprinted across the black scales of its forehead. It narrowed its eyes and flicked its tail in protest. The edge slammed into Lynn's face, shattering the mask and throwing her backwards.

"LYNN!" Sakura screamed.

Half an inch to the right and Lynn's mask wouldn't have been the only thing to suffer...It would have been her skull. The shock on her older sister's face was evident and the words spilled clumsily from her lips, "They're...they're real...Shit...How?"

Sakura danced backwards from the whip of a tail and narrowly avoided the fist of the other creature. The dragon roared its indignation and unleashed a fan of flames on them. Sakura, pressed between the trees, could only drop and hope to avoid the worst of the heat. She braced, heard a crash, and felt a yank beneath her shoulders. Sakura found herself floating in the arms of a man in hard purple and black armor with eyes the color of steel.

The Dark Magician.

Sakura spun in his arms to the side and found Lynn, hanging neatly by the back of her dress from the mouth of a silvery dragon with pale blue eyes. The pink-haired kunoichi sat up, bracing her hip against the staff of the Dark Magician and glanced over his shoulder. Standing behind them were Yami and Seto Kaiba with unfolded duel discs and stacks of cards.

"Seto..." Lynn trailed off, still hangingly comically from the mouth of the massive dragon.

"You didn't think I'd let you get away that easily, did you?" Seto smirked.

The Blue-Eyes White Dragon calmly set Lynn between its front legs, wrapped its tail protectively around her, and unleashed a wave of white fire on the Red-Eyes Black Dragon in the same blast as a wave of dark magic. Sakura, caught in the current of air and heat, saw the lines of the eerie pentagram begin to waver and finally break as the earth shattered beneath them. Lynn, blind to both, crouched closer to the dragon's belly and found that as it unfurled and the dust cleared that Dartz was simply gone...and only two of the three cards, one labeled Redux and the other labeled Red-Eyes Black Dragon were sitting, charred and smoldering at the edges, in the clearing. The dragon, as gently as something the size of a small building could, nudged her towards Kaiba and spiraled away into white mist. The Dark Magician deposited Sakura in front of Yami and did much the same.

The King of Games grabbed her and pulled her close with a ferocity that almost scared her. His smell, earthy and dry, enveloped her. He whispered, his voice low and tight, "Do you have _any_ idea how scared I was?"

Sakura cleanched her hands tight in his jacket and muttered back, "Yami...I-I..."

She was interrupted by Seto's growl: "You stupid woman. Again? Running off again?"

"Go to Hell, Seto Kaiba. You can growl all you want at me. I would still do the same. The Shinobi Nations are no place for a civilian." Lynn shouted.

"Civilian?" Seto hissed, "Need I remind you of all the fights I've overcome?"

Lynn felt a flash of guilt she hid quickly; of course she knew he was a soldier and a High Priest...She had disrespected him. And it occurred to her she had done it the same way that he did. She wanted to think of it as a turning point in their relationship, a way to make things better, but found it only fueled her outrage.

"Do you have any idea what you did to Mokuba?" Seto growled.

Lynn's face flushed with unshed tears. She hadn't and that was the idea that hurt the most. That the same way Orochimaru had discarded her, the same way Itachi left her, all of those pains and those fears and she had inflicted them, forced them on poor Mokuba, without a single thought for him. The shame hammered at her stomach nauseatingly.

"I'm staying until this is over." Kaiba snapped, his duel disc folding back on itself.

"This isn't a fight for a duelist!" Lynn shouted.

"With all due respect, Lynn, this is _the_ fight for a duelist." Yami replied.

"What do you mean?" Lynn growled.

"Dartz was a duelist in ancient times; older than Kaiba and myself," Yami said. "He developed the Orichalcos as a way to inflict monsters upon the world. We've fought him before."

"Then we need to speak to Lady Tsunade-shishou." Sakura replied.

Sakura had only a few moments to regret that decision as all four of them sat, waiting, in the Hokage's office twenty minutes later. The slam of the door on the hinges as Tsunade shoved it open was enough to tell her they were in trouble well before the yelling began.

"You two better have a damned good explanation for pulling civilians into this matter!" Tsunade shouted, eyeing Seto and Yami angrily.

"They _are_ soldiers, Tsunade. They're just a different variety." Lynn offered.

"I don't have time to protect those who can't protect themselves." Tsunade replied.

"I assure you we are well equipped to manage ourselves." Yami replied quickly before Seto could offend the busty blonde.

"This isn't a shinobi art." Sakura said.

"Girl, I don't have time to chit-chat. Speak plainly." Tsunade snapped.

"The Orichalcos is a dark magic designed to bring Monsters into the world of reality." Yami replied, "And claim the soul of anyone unfortunate enough to lose to them."

"The soul? For what?" The Hokage replied.

"For fueling the return of a great demon dragon god to the earth." Yami told her.

"And why should I trust you in this matter?" Tsunade asked.

"Because we've sent him running with his tail between his legs before." Seto told her.

Tsunade folded her hands beneath her chin and sighed; Sakura had spoken highly of her lover in her letters. And Tsunade, having only just begun corresponding with Lynn after years of stony silence, was less trusting of both her and her lover. Then again, Lynn had returned to them, sold all of Orichimaru's secrets and begun spy missions a world away. She was responsible for the fall of the Akatsuki even after falling in love with all of them; Deidara and Itachi alone might have shared her body but they all shared a place in her heart…a brotherhood of thieves and murderers. And she was a true warrior…even when it cost her a small part of her soul. And Sakura had never once betrayed the trust of her mentor. It was a complicated situation.

"I expect a plan for this on my desk by morning." Tsunade replied, "In the meantime, the ANBU will run nightly rotations on guard watch."

Tsunade stood up, opened the door, and added, almost as an afterthought, "I'm glad you two are home."

"Dinner?" Lynn asked Seto, "My treat."

Seto, icy with his silence, motioned at her to lead the way. And left Sakura staring into the dark crimson of Yami's disappointed eyes.

"Would you like to come home with me?" Sakura asked.

"Always." He replied.

Sakura cringed at both the edge in his voice and the thought of the state of her apartment. She was never supposed to be gone for that long. Months of rotting food in her fridge, the sheets and towels she had left spread out on the floor, the dishes sitting molding for that long in disgusting sink water. Naruto had promised to dust for her, but she didn't know if he still had after so many months of her being gone. When she wrote to him, he never responded.

The walk to her place was painful and filled with silence. The village was on an emergency curfew. Only a few places were allowed to operate. And that meant she didn't have even the sounds of bustling to distract her from Yami's gaze and the curve of his mouth that meant he was angry. She opened the door to her apartment with painstaking slowness and found that instead of the stench of rot that she smelled flowers.

Her living room was perfect and she could see into her beautifully maintained bathroom. Her pantry was full but her fridge was empty. And she felt tears of gratitude gather in her eyes. Someone had loved her even when she was gone. Yami waited for her to invite him in and she sat down heavily on her battered couch.

"I'm sorry." She finally whispered.

"I wish you had told me." He replied.

"I didn't want to drag you into...into _all_ of this. Into Lady Tsunade and the village and...all of our problems." She sighed.

"Sakura, I want to be a part of your problems, always. So that I can be part of the solution." Yami told her.

"I don't think Yugi will ever forgive me...Or Solomon." Sakura exhaled shakily.

"Their hearts are bigger than your transgression. They will understand." Yami told her.

"Do you?" She asked.

"I do. I don't appreciate it, but I understand." Yami said.

"SAKURA!"

The door slammed open and standing in the frame of it was a man with sandy blond hair and blue eyes. His pants were still an obnoxious shade of orange, but his shirt was black with a green leaf symbol on it. His padded vest was open to his hips, hanging there, and his hitae-ate was almost covered with a fringe of spiky hair.

"Naruto!"

Sakura felt the joy bubble up. He had the vest of a jonin...he had passed his exams. She threw herself at him in a hug and he swung her around joyously.

"You did it, Naruto! I'm so proud of you!" She said.

And behind her, Yami averted his eyes in pain.

* * *

Lynn was grateful to Teuchi and Ayame for opening their home to her and Seto when their restaurant was closed. And even more so for the privacy they gave when both of them quietly retired to their small bedrooms upstairs over the Ramen Shop and left the living room to Lynn and Kaiba.

"I'm sorry, Seto. I was wrong. I know that." Lynn ground the words out between slurps of broth-heavy noodles and bites of marinated egg.

"Mokuba is devastated, Lynn. You didn't hurt just me." Seto replied with surprising evenness to his voice as he spun up a bundle of seawood to his mouth with his chopsticks.

"I know..." Lynn said.

Orochimaru used to mock her after sex, telling her to take her birth control because, Gods forbid, she should have children...what kind of mother could a slut of a kunoichi and traitor to her own nation be? And even knowing that it was all to bring him to justice, to collapse the Nation of Sound, those words had hung heavily in Lynn's heart for a very long time. And she loved Mokuba like a son...He had started to call her "Mom" instead of Lynn...and she had thrown that trust out the window and burned it. Even if he could forgive her, she didn't think she could forgive herself.

"I was trying to protect you. Our world is dangerous. It's not your soul you lose, it's your life...There's no coming back. No bringing you back from the shadows..."

"I would rather stare Death in the face that lose you without knowing why." Seto growled.

Lynn flinched; she questioned, even more so with the sweetly scented fish broth wafting up to her nose, whether she had chosen the right path in life. She loved Seto, but she loved Konoha, too. And she had given so much for the village that needed her so desperately again. Could a man like Kaiba, a CEO and a man of the world, understand? She wouldn't know until she tried.

"I gave up my whole life for Konoha. I whored myself out to the enemy for information and sometimes to feel...to feel like I was worth something. I killed my lovers because I loved Konoha more, Seto. I didn't, and I still don't, think that I could choose between them."

"I didn't ask you to." Seto snipped.

That hurt because it was true. If she had been honest with him, he would have been angry but he would have understood. Easier to ask forgiveness than permission, she told herself, however wrong the sentiment felt and was.

"We're a different breed of warrior. I should have explained myself before I left." She allowed.

"Different doesn't have to mean exclusive. We can help. And we could have helped more if you had been honest with me sooner."

"I know...And I want this to be the last time, Seto."

"The last time for what?" He asked.

"For lying and hiding. I want to trust you...I want you to trust me."

Seto set down his chopsticks. He wanted to be angry, but he lied and hid as much as she did. Even more when Mokuba was concerned. And it needed to stop however much he wanted to continue with his life of secrets and shadows, the world of keeping his home and business life neatly separated. Those were things for a man without power and without influence and without a thousands of years old burden of magic on him.

"Then no more lying. Or hiding." He agreed.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two: Song of the Night**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or Naruto. They are the respective property of their original creators. Likewise, Lynn Haruno isn't mine! She's a creation of ScarletRoseProdigy!**_

Lynn hated the night patrol. Konoha was so painfully still in the darkness, it was easy to get jittery. Something about Domino City never slept and she had grown accustomed to the noise, the lights, and the crowds. The dense green of Konoha offered none of those things. The moon was high and bright and eerie.

Lynn felt his presence before she saw it. Felt the creeping darkness that began to bleed from the shadows around her.

"Let's stop playing games, shall we?" Lynn sighed into the night air.

"You misunderstand me. I don't merely want to play."

Lynn's honey colored eyes settled on his silvery shape as it emerged from the darkness.

"I want you to come play with me."

Lynn snorted, "I decline."

"I sense something in you, my child."

Lynn shuffled the cards in her hand absently and glared at him. "Are we going to finish this or not?"

"I sense darkness in you. Great darkness. And desire. A fallen lover, I see."

Lynn flinched before she could stop herself. The image of Itachi's bloodied body flashed unwelcome across her mind's eye. She remembered how hot his blood was as it flowed between her fingers.

"I could give you that power, my dear. The power to bring him back. The power to bring him _home_."

Her hand shook. The cards dropped from between her fingers just like his blood had...The seal ached horribly. Her breath caught in her throat. If she could accept the Seal, control it...just long enough to bring him home...She had been a double agent before. She had been a triple agent. Every time, every damned time, she had come home stronger, had _made_ her home stronger. This wouldn't be any different. Accepting his offer would make him more likely to trust her...She was doing it for Konoha. For everything...

She stepped forward to accept the card in his hand. Green light flooded the forest.

* * *

Sakura cut through the trees, a sharp, lithe, panicked figure. Four laps. Four laps around Konoha and not a single sign of Lynn. Not so much as errant chakra on a tree leaf. Nothing.

She swung herself down to the ground. Kaiba and Yami were waiting. She couldn't quite bring herself to look Kaiba in the eyes.

"I can't find her..."

Kaiba made a noise full of his disgust and his distaste and told her, "Then I'm going."

"I don't think so! Dartz is dangerous! We're asking for trouble if we don't play this right! And you know that, Kaiba!" She yelled back.

"Try and stop me."

"Don't make me hurt you, Kaiba."

Yami grabbed his lover's arm and drew her close. "If it was you out there, my love, I wouldn't be stopped..."

Sakura bit down hard on her lip. The taste of blood grounded her. Lynn was gone. Kakashi was in a coma. Eighteen more nin had been reported as downed before they had so much as left the Hokage's tower.

"Yami, you know we can't do this-"

"Together, my love, we can do anything. We're never truly alone. Not here. Not now."

Kaiba spun to leave. Sakura grabbed for him.

"I won't try to stop you..."

"As if you could."

"But you bring her back to me, Seto Kaiba. Don't make me come and get you, too."

Kaiba said nothing as he cut back through the forest. The dawn was coming, Yami realized as he looked up.

"We have work to do," He told his lover.

"We do."

Something skittered behind him. Sakura somersaulted over him and he heard her fist slam devastatingly against bone. A creature, its forehead glowing with a green symbol, toppled and fizzled into nothingness. Behind the trees, he heard more gathering. Yami called forth the Dark Magician. Sakura charged into the green.

Hours later, he would tally the numbers of Duel Monster undead and filth he had put down. Hundreds. And dozens, if the stretchers of unconscious bodies of nin were any indication, of downed warriors. Picking through them was Tsunade. She stopped to eye him. Yami dropped his own gaze respectfully.

"This menace is spreading."

Yami glanced up long enough to acknowledge her remark.

"Yes, it is."

"And what do you intend to do about it?"

"Everything I can. Starting by finding beating these creatures back."

Tsunade's glowing hand floated above a patient. She nodded at the nurse beside the downed shinobi.

"You've done a good enough job already. This man will live because of you."

"If I can free his soul."

"Don't make me doubt you."

Yami nodded. Tsunade stepped away. Sakura passed him, squeezing his hand affectionately.

Yami stared up into the sun.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter Three: A Heart's Battle**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or Naruto. They are the respective property of their original creators. Likewise, Lynn Haruno isn't mine! She's a creation of ScarletRoseProdigy!**_

Kaiba knew Lynn. He knew the little scars that played on her fingers and her hands. He knew the nightmares she had. He knew how her cries echoed from their tiny bathroom at home. He knew her laugh in a chorus of a thousand voices.

He knew she loved the moon.

He wasn't surprised to find her standing in a clearing with a full view of the almost full moon.

"Lynn."

"Seto." She replied without turning to face him.

"I knew I'd find you."

"I wouldn't bother hiding from the likes of you."

Seto shuffled his cards between his two hands. The duel disc on his arm whirred to life without his cue.

"And what, exactly, does that mean?"

Lynn turned to face him. In the silver light of the moon, he saw the red of her lips, the amber richness of her eyes, and the glowing green symbol like a cancer across her forehead.

"You're scum, Seto Kaiba. The kind of filth I like to rid myself of regularly."

"Cut to the chase, Lynn. We don't have all day."

"The sex was good. What other reason would a woman, any woman, put up with your bullshit?"

Seto flinched. The green circle expanded out against the ground and swallowed him. He stared up into his lover's eyes, the honey deepness corrupted with a green sheen. He could fight her. He could win. He knew he could. But, Seto realized, he wouldn't really be fighting her. He would be fighting whatever Dartz had done to her. Seto Kaiba was many things. He had cheated when the odds were stacked against him. Never the other way around. He refused to start.

"What do you want, Lynn?"

"Your soul," She replied breezily.

Seto Kaiba couldn't help but laugh,

"That was something you already had."

The circle contracted hard. He heard Lynn's sarcastic, horrible laughing. The darkness closed in.

* * *

Sakura's view of the forest through the hospital windows was cut by a brilliant green beam and a sharp, sudden sense of loss deep in her chest.

"You stupid son of a bitch..." She hissed.

"Love?" Yami glanced up.

"He lost."

"I had the feeling he might..." Yami sighed.

Sakura slammed her fist against a wall hard enough to crack the stone. The crumbling drywall seemed to speak of the hopelessness of her situation.

"Sakura..."

Yami sat helplessly beside her.

"I have work to do."

Yami followed instinctively. He watched, frustratingly useless, as she secured her hair, washed her hands, and began the tedious tending of wounds. He knew it gave her little satisfaction to patch them with so little result. She could mend their bodies. She could set broken bones. Lacerations and burns would close and fade underneath her glowing palms. And still she couldn't bring their souls back home.

"I...please...my love..."

She looked up and was startled to see the pain in his eyes.

"I know...I...Lynn..."

"What are you saying?" She asked, the chakra in her palms dying back.

"I fell to the Seal. I was trying to save them. I...it lies, Sakura. The Seal lies. It promises you power, love, forgiveness, redemption, protection, anything to gain your compliance. You have to understand. It's an entity that feeds on pure desire. The purest desires."

"Yami...what are you saying? Please?"

"I knew it would promise Lynn. I didn't know what it would promise her. But I knew it would promise to give her back to Seto. I didn't know how to stop him."

"Why didn't you tell me all of this before?"

"The Seal takes the best parts of who you are and twists it against you. I didn't want to set you up for a failure I couldn't foresee. Forgive me."

Sakura didn't reply. For a long time after, she worked on her patients wordlessly, her eyes a vacant, unreadable green sea. Eventually, they brought Kaiba through the doors. He was serene, completely unresponsive, soulless. Yami thought it spoke a great deal to the hardship of his life that the release of his soul from his body brought such peace. He watched his lover inspect his rival and send him to a recovery ward even though she knew he wouldn't wake.

They walked back to Sakura's barren, immaculate apartment. Yami watched her methodically strip and step into a hot shower without bothering to close the door or the curtain. He followed, his hand pressed to the wall for support.

"I understand if you can't see past my failings-"

"You didn't tell me."

"I didn't know how."

"How to you get out? How did you break the Seal?"

Yami felt the tears rush into his eyes.

"I didn't. Yuugi...he took my place. I have never forgiven myself. Not once. Not for a moment."

"He has. You know that."

"I'm unworthy of his love. And yours."

"Don't say that. I fought to be able to love you."

The water cascaded down her face. She watched the blood and grime swirl away down the drain at her feet.

"What would you have of me?"

"I would have you protect my people when I can't."

"Sakura...you're leaving, aren't you?"

"I have to. She's my sister, Yami."

"I'm scared for you. And me."

"I know what I'm coming home to. I know _how_ to come home."

* * *

"I understand. Thanks, Mokuba."

Tristan waited for Joey to shuffle his cellphone back into his pocket before he asked, "Any news?"

"Not a lick."

"What's the hold up?" Yuugi asked.

"It's all crap," Joey replied, scratching at the back of his neck.

"They have no proof that Kaiba is missing or ill. It's red tape and bureaucracy. I'm willing to bet the board won't turn of Kaiba Corporation without proof that he's missing or ill. Mokuba is still underage and with Kaiba's history of disappearing, they probably won't take a missing persons report seriously. Mokuba doesn't hold the majority share, so there's nothing he can do," Tristan offered up.

"So we're just going to sit here?" Teá asked.

"Solomon and I have been discussing an alternative," Duke said, his fists balled on top of his knees.

"Grandpa?" Yuugi looked up at the elderly man.

"The store is worth quite a bit of money. I could take a loan against its equity and purchase a few shares of Kaiba Corp. If I gifted them to Mokuba, he might have the majority to access the computers with the information on where they went and how they got there. It would give him probable cause to have the board turn control over. Then we'd have Kaiba Corporation's financial backing," Solomon told him.

"You said 'might'..." Yuugi trailed off.

"Kaiba Corporation is large and powerful. Their stock value is high. We'd only be able to buy a few shares...I don't know if it would be enough to sway power far enough in Mokuba's direction," Solomon allowed.

"And this is your home," Tristan added.

"Homes can be rebuilt if we have our family," Solomon smiled.

"There are serious repercussions. If Kaiba doesn't come back, we may not ever recoup the value of your store. How will you care for yourselves without the income of the shop?" Teá asked.

"I still have my hands and my wits. I could return to digging."

"Grandpa! I won't let you do that to yourself."

"My dear boy, it's already too late," Solomon smiled. "The bank approved me this morning. And our adviser is purchasing the stocks as we speak."

"What if this goes south?" Joey asked.

"Then we stick it out." Tristan replied.

TBC


End file.
